Hetherly s



(No Model.)

H. S. .MARINER.

TRAP.

110.589,1'88. Patented Aug. 31,1897.v

v WITNESSES INVENTOR l -Qmm @gw/914m I ttorney UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

- HETHERLY s. MARINER, on AMESBURY, MASSACHUSETTS.

TRAP.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 589,183, dated August 31, 189'?. Application filed December-29, l1896. Serial No. 617,401. `(No model.)

To all whom t may concern: y

Beit known that I, HETHEELY MARINER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Amesbury, in the county'of Essex and State of Massachusetts,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in rlraps; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and eXact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Myinvention relates to certain new and useful improvements in animal-traps, the object being to provide a simple and effective form of trap for capturing mice.

To this end my invention consists of a base having a hinged' body, suitable catch connections to hold the hinged body suspended, and a trip -lever adapted to disengage the said d catch connections and allow said body to 2O drop, all arranged and operating substantially in the manner hereinafter described' and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure lis a perspective view showin g the trap set. Fig. 2 is a sectional side view of the trap thrown open. Fig. 3 is a detail perspective view of the hinged locking member on the body. Fig. 4 is a perspective View of the trip-lever and its locking member.

Referring to the drawings, the letter A designates a rectangular bottom or base, and B a rectangular body portion closed at the top and sides, but open at the bottom. This body portion is hinged at C to the Said base. A.

The trap mechanism is adapted to hold the said body suspended in an inclined position, as shown in Fig. l, and release said bodyupon a mouse touching the bait. Upon the inner front wall ofv the hinged body is a catch member D, oneend of which-is pivoted thereto. At the center this catch is bent to form a shoulder d and a depending tongue d2.

The mechanism on the base comprises a second latch member E, pivoted to the said base vat one end and provided on its inner face with a slightly-curved trip-rod F, whose free end has a loop or eye g, to which astring or hook may be connected on which the bait is suspended. This free 'end of the rod may be formed in such manner as to confine the 5o bait without the aid of a string, if desired.

In setting the trap, as shown in Fig. l, the

upper end of the trip latch memberE is placed under the shoulder d of the upper latch member D, so as to ysupport the free end of the body in an inclined position. The curvature of the rod causes it toassume the upwardlyprojecting-position in order to afford space for suspending the bait belonT it.

In operation it'will be seen that when a 6o members and consequent drop of the body B,

which will coniine the mouse.

T-My invention provides a simple, cheap, and effective construction of trap which operates instantly. The mechanism of this trap, un-

like other niouse-traps, avoids hard or 7o easy setting and friction between the parts.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new'7 and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

An animal-trapr comprising a base, a gravity-operated bodyp'ivoted at one end thereto, a pivoted latch member on the body having a shoulder, a pivoted. latch member on the base whose free end is 'adapted to engage said shoulder, and a trip-rod projecting from the 8o inner face of the base latch member, thefree end'of said rod adapted to Support the bait,

vsubstantially as described and for the purpose designated.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the ing witnesses.

HETHEELY S. `MARINER,

presence of two Subscrib- 

